Update on March 21st: At the start of Ramadan, one long-time supporter generously agreed to give us $25k if we received $25k from other supporters in the first half of Ramadan! You helped us meet this match challenge! Thank you for entrusting us with your zakat to free our siblings and please keep sharing our campaign. 

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Believers Bail Out is a community-led organization that uses zakat to bail out Muslims from pretrial and immigration incarceration across the United States. Currently, about 400,000 people are being held in jails awaiting their trial, with more than 60% not able to afford the bond amount that they need to pay to be able to go home. Bail bonds are racist and criminalize poverty. The majority of incarcerated people are Black, Indigenous, and/or Latinx, and Muslims are about 9% of our incarcerated population. The prison industrial complex is rooted in a history of anti-Black racism, and it builds upon anti-Muslim racism to expand policing and incarceration for everyone. 

Muslims face an increased risk of victimization, surveillance and denial of religious freedom in the prison system due to Islamophobia. As Muslims incarcerated in Illinois prisons have told us, they feel immense solidarity with Palestinians enduring an ongoing genocide, and have endured decades of incarceration by Israeli Occupation Forces in Palestine. As the history of US and Indian police training with the IOF shows us, racist policing is increasingly learned and strengthened internationally, and global Islamophobia manifests in cages as well as bombs. 

When we post bail for believers who cannot afford their bail, we reunite them with their families and restore their freedom while they fight their cases, which can take years. Since our beginnings in 2018 in Chicago, we have expanded to help bail out Muslims across the United States, including Texas, Connecticut, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Georgia. We have collected and redistributed over $1,000,000 to bail out over 200 Muslims from jails and detention centers.   

In the coming year we will continue to expand our work in bailing out Muslims in pretrial and ICE incarceration in other states, inshallah. Cash bail was eliminated in Illinois in 2023 through the Pretrial Fairness Act, allowing more people to fight their cases from outside jail. BBO now turns  to helping our incarcerated siblings wherever cash bail is still in place, and  we continue to support those whom we’ve bailed out in Chicago, and advocate for the end of cash bail across the country. 

Why free Muslims with zakat: 

The Qur’an (9:60) specifies eight uses for zakat. Zakat can be used to help the poor (al-fuqara), the needy (al-masakin), the debt-ridden (al-gharimin), and the wayfarer (ibn al-sabil), and to free slaves or captives (al-raqib). People being held in pretrial or immigration incarceration who can’t afford bail qualify for zakat. 

BBO uses zakat locally, as preferred by many Islamic scholars. While we resist the racist tactics used by the American military industrial complex abroad, we are reminded of its close ties to the prison industrial complex in our own neighborhoods.We confront the racism of these intertwined systems by bailing out Muslims for pretrial and ICE incarceration, even as we focus on building solidarity and community amongst Muslims and across difference.  

Our Work in The Next Year:

• Use Zakat to bail out Muslims in states where cash bail is still in place
• Support incarcerated Muslims whom we can’t bail out, using zakat or sadaqa, as appropriate
• Support Muslims after their release from jail or from ICE
• Utilize grant funding to hire staff to build participatory defense efforts in Chicago

The Carceral System in the United States

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Almost 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, with over 400,000 held in pretrial incarceration. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people are incarcerated at higher rates than the general population.

Although the American justice system claims people are “innocent until proven guilty,” those who have experienced pretrial incarceration know that this presumption is rarely fully afforded them. Bond penalizes people who don’t have the money to free themselves and people who cannot pay bond can be jailed indefinitely, sometimes for years. Pre-trial incarceration can result in people losing jobs, custody of their children, their homes, and even their lives–all without ever being convicted of a crime. 

Even after a bond is paid, individuals face bureaucratic hurdles. Upon release, people have limited freedom and job opportunities because of surveillance through electronic monitoring. Electronic monitoring, often through ankle bracelets, limits their ability to leave their homes to a few hours twice a week. Within these limited hours, they must prioritize essential tasks such as getting groceries or picking up their children.  

Immigration incarceration in ICE facilities is no better. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains tens of thousands of people, including lawful permanent residents who have been charged with criminal offenses, and undocumented immigrants. Even after a case is dropped, people may continue to be held for their immigration case. ICE holds asylum seekers fleeing from violence in their home countries, qualifying them as zakat recipients.  

Similar to those who are held in pretrial incarceration, people held in ICE incarceration can lose their jobs, housing and custody of their children -- in addition to enduring the hardship of incarceration. It is extremely difficult for immigrants to find representation from behind bars, and even when they have it, individuals can be arbitrarily denied their right to speak to legal counsel.  But those who can pay bond are five times more likely to find a lawyer and twice as likely to win their case.

Post Release Support

BBO’s work doesn’t end at a bailout. After release, there are few, if any, support services for people who are on electronic monitoring and fighting their cases. The BBO post-release support team assists those we’ve bailed out to get to their court dates, to get groceries and provide a Muslim community they can turn to.

Learn More

Join us for our virtual programming to learn more. All events will be live streamed on our YouTube page and Facebook page, and will be available afterwards for viewing.

Zakat Towards Abolition: Wednesday March 6th at 6:15pm CST, Guest speakers Dr. Kecia Ali, Shaykh Rami Nsour, and Dr. Abdoulaye Ndiaye discuss the power of using zakat towards abolition and bailing out members of our Muslim community.

Community Resistance and Police Violence: Sunday, March 10th at 7pm CST, Guest speakers Candido “Naji” Ublies (Chicago Torture Justice Center) and Clayborn “Khadzi” Smith with Dallas Wright (BBO).

Towards Collective Liberation: Sunday March 24th at 3pm CST, Guest speakers Hazel Gomez, Farah El-Sharif, and Narjis Nichole will talk about abolition, justice, and community accountability from the Islamic perspective. 

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to learn more about the carceral system and what BBO is doing to build community as Muslims to fight this unjust and racist carceral system.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believersbailout/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/believerbailout 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BelieversBailOut/ 

Get Involved

Join us in the fight for abolition! See how you can be involved with Believers Bail Out: http://believersbailout.org 

Interested in joining BBO as a volunteer? Email volunteer@believersbailout.org to join the fight for abolition.

If you work with a community bail fund in another city and want to partner with BBO, please email believersbailout@gmail.com. We are always looking for partners to expand bail outs in other cities!

Paying bonds is one small thing we can do, but our ultimate goal must be prison abolition and the building of community infrastructures that respond to the call of our Lord - for the righteous believers “to feed for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive” (Qur’an 76:8)